Dreams and (Extended) Realities: The Future of Immersive Media

NAB

Video games, realtime virtual production, VR, AR and extended reality (XR) are combining to revolutionize immersive storytelling experiences in ways that studio heads are actively imagineering.

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At NAB Show 2023 the conference session Immersive Storytelling: Expanding Audiences with XR in Games, Education, and Location-Based Entertainment examined the growing convergence between traditional entertainment and advanced technology and what comes next.

Jake Zim, SVP, Virtual Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment said, “VR is immersive and isolating in many ways. It’s intense. Most people’s VR sessions are between 20 and 40 minutes. That’s very different than watching a long-form piece of content. So, every slice of the spectrum of storytelling aligns with the different technology.”

His concern is, “How do the different touchpoints all both connect with and stay authentic to the original brand and the vision holder of the original brand, but yet offer the audience something unique that the technology or platform could deliver?”

Zim was in conversation on the stage with Aaron Grosky, president and COO of Dreamscape Immersive and COO of Dreamscape Learn. 

Grosky said, “Gameplay, at its core, is about narrative. I think about owning the structure and taking you on a journey and trying to direct you and make you see things and have things going on around you, but not in having agency and interactivity, because then you lose control of the story and where we’re trying to take you.”

The pair talked about world building, cross pollination of IP, the benefits of interactive VR in education, and the possibilities for creating new forms of storytelling with virtual production.

They also addressed how the next generation of talent will change the creative focus of the industry: Zim said, “When I when I speak to young people who are interested in getting into the creative business, whether it’s movies, television or interactive, I always try to point them towards where we’re seeing real growth in terms of product and consumer behavior.

“So designing for programing, for building, for artwork and for interactive platforms that can hopefully have a storytelling element to them is really the exciting space to be.”